The
49-year-old Muskegon Heights native will execute her efforts on Saturday, May
11 during a Walk for Lupus at her alma mater, Muskegon Heights' high school
now part of Muskegon Heights Public School Academy.

"I
want to bring more awareness to this community, the African American community,
but I want everyone to come," Williams said. "We need something positive around
here."

Williams
said lupus has a major connection to the predominately black locale since
African-American women are three times more likely to get the disease, which causes
the body to attack its own healthy tissues and organs and cause damage to skin,
joints, kidneys and other body parts.

In
recent years, lupus has received more attention with entertainers like Grammy
Award-winning singer Toni Braxton opening up about having the disease. Dr.
Arnie Klein, one of Michael Jackson's famed and controversial doctors, claimed
in 2009 that the pop star had the illness.

Common
symptoms often include joint and muscle pain and stiffness, kidney dysfunction,
fever, anemia, hair loss, skin rashes and sun or light sensitivity.

Williams
said she is not aware of many lupus awareness events in the West Michigan area as she
more often sees programs in the southeastern portion of the state such as the Michigan Lupus
Foundation's Annual Metro Detroit Walk for Lupus event.

Ultimately,
she would like to see the disease gain the same attention as cancer.

Saturday's
event, which coincides with Lupus Awareness Month, will feature a children's
area featuring a bounce house, painting and coloring.

"It's
not like a 5K or 3K race. You're just going to walk for your health," Williams
said.

Participants
will paint butterflies to symbolize the disease as lupus patients often develop
a malar rash — a butterfly-shaped mark on their nose and cheeks, Williams said.

Williams
said the event will also serve to raise funds for the Lupus Foundation of
America and Mercy Health Partners' community benefit nonprofit, the Muskegon
Community Health Project, which helps cash-strapped residents secure prescriptions.

"The
only thing you can do for a lupus patient is help with the medication,"
Williams said.

The
event comes after two decades dealing with episodic flares and other struggles,
said Williams, who received her diagnosis after having her now 20-year-old son.

"When
I found out what it was, I took it like death sentence. I treated it like
cancer because it has no cure. I took it the wrong way," Williams said.

Williams
said she received top treatment at the University of Michigan hospital early on
but it took her four years to feel comfortable managing her disease. She
began to taking high dosages of prescribed steroids, which caused her to be
irritable and aggressive. She also gained nearly 200 pounds.

"I
became a different person on the steroids," said Williams, who initially traveled
to Ann Arbor every three months until she found a rheumatologist in Muskegon. "I
had to learn how to become myself again."

She
learned, for example, that she could bring a flare up upon herself by not
managing stress and that UV rays could irritate her type of lupus.

Williams'
increased awareness led her to get her daughters — now ages 22 and 27 — regularly tested
for the disease since their teens. The disease runs on her father's side of the
family and both daughters have since tested positive for the disease, Williams said.

"It
is a scary disease, but you can live with it and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
You don't have to be embarrassed about it," she said.

Registration
begins at 9 a.m. and the event is scheduled to end at 3 p.m. For more information, contact
Williams at (231) 215-3669 or by e-mail at shevette3@gmail.com.